It seems like an appointment now taken for granted. At each conclusion of the school year, at each state exam, the encounter between school and administrative justice produces its deleterious effects. Again this year, the inevitable happened. In a classical high school in Rome, the rejection of a student who had reported heavy failings in the final exam - 3 in mathematics, 4 in physics, 3 in art history - was annulled by a sentence from the Lazio Regional Administrative Court, with very imaginative reasons how arbitrary, according to which, mathematics and physics would be secondary subjects in the classical high school and therefore such serious deficiencies would not affect the regularity of the course of study.
Giovanni Belardelli, commenting on this episode in last Monday's Corriere della sera, observes that the political scientist Alessandro Pizzorno defines the phenomenon of continuous recourse to administrative justice as a "surrender of social authority to the law" (The power of judges, Laterza) by those who in the past had the role of setting the rules and enforcing them (from the teacher to the doctor, from the head of the family to the company manager) are now no longer able to carry out this function. For his part, the user who once accepted the decisions of a social authority today resorts more and more frequently to the judiciary to assert what he believes to be injured rights, but also, it must be added, often to slyly circumvent failures or take advantage from the inconveniences. After all, anyone who works in the school, especially in the upper secondary, witnesses hysterical scenes at the end of the year and also attacks on teachers by parents who are unable to accept a rejection or in any case a failure.
In the ensuing confusion of roles, assessment and examination become mere bureaucratic fulfilments, of simple routine ratification which take away not only the prestige of the school but also the possibility of carrying out that function of social lift which it is responsible for, generating frustration and distrust in everyone. In increasingly delegitimized and mortified teachers, in increasingly less motivated students and in increasingly distrustful families, all sucked into a vicious circle with no way out.
What other surprise then will the conclusion of the work of the state examination commissions reserve, in short, of maturity, as it is stubbornly continued to be defined, still at work to evaluate the outcome of the secondary cycle of studies? Probably none. By now the damage is done and has produced its devastating consequences. The circulation of news of this kind will help induce the commissioners to be excessively cautious and to close not one but many eyes, as anyone with experience of examination commissions well knows, to avoid appeals and disputes.
We will almost certainly find ourselves confirming the trend over the past few years whereby more than 99% of candidates pass the exam. Of course, we would all be happy if the student population truly achieved this level of academic achievement. But at least three indicators reveal a very different reality. The first comes from various reports, including that of Confindustria "Beyond appearances: school and business of the third millennium dossier on business demand" of 2010 which reveals a gap of 110 units between the demand and supply of technicians by businesses. But if about five hundred thousand graduates leave the high school every year, 50% of which in the technical and professional area, how can this figure be explained if not by the inadequacy of the preparation of the graduates?
Secondly, OECD research continues to mortify us by noting that the linguistic and mathematical skills of Italian adults are among the lowest in OECD countries and this, unfortunately, does not spare even young Italians who are well below what is observed for the same age groups in the majority of countries participating in the survey. (PIAAC 2013 data). Finally, the Almalaurea 2009 research shows significant data on university dropouts (over 18%) and above all a high percentage of graduates who have not completed their course, a reduced number of graduates and inconsistencies between university courses and the skills required in the labor market.
All this fuels some doubts about the fact that the graduates so massively dismissed from the exams fully meet the expected requirements and also casts a shadow on the actual usefulness of the exams themselves. But it also poses the urgency of restoring a dignified objectivity to the examination. As? Even starting with small things. For example, with the revision of some by now baroque frills such as the so-called term paper, often reduced to a pure copy and paste. For example by introducing elements of impartiality in the evaluation with objective tests, perhaps managed by INVALSI and to be submitted to external correctors. Starting from a more objective examination, one could also begin to break the self-referentiality of the school which constitutes one of the most serious limits to the credibility of the system and the social prestige of teachers and also to break the vicious circle of distrust and compliance.
Attachments: School - State Exams: the failing tab confuses the results and makes them less credible
